Da Couch Tomato

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Cinema, television, literature, and music–basically anything that can be reviewed. If you're interested in writing reviews, e-mail us at dacouchtomato@gmail.com. We won't pay you for reviews, but you get to practise your writing skills. It's a win-win situation for everyone.

Glee Season 1, Episode 8 Mash-Up

I was waiting for the first season to end before I do a review in a sort of "In Defense of the Glee Hype" tone, or any other hype for that matter (maybe the Twilight movie, High School Musical, or heck, even the emo scene). However, circumstances of friends fawning over Glee and other friends declaring their hate for (or boredom over) it made it seem like the right time to make a bit of a "neutral" assessment of the hype. Still, more however, watching the latest episode was a bit of bad timing for whatever defense I wanted to make. Because from every angle I look at it, this is by far the suckiest I've watched. It especially falls flat on its face after the previous most coherent episode Glee has shown. This episode is very, very, very frustrating. Because just as I thought that it's giving me something giddy---Sue Sylvester dancing, Noah and Rachel actually fulfilling a proper role of a TV couple exuding chemistry and hotness, and coach of the football team being less annoying---it takes it easily away because, that's just it. I don't know why the writers of this episode take it away. They were holding onto something good and then they fumble, dropping the ball, not knowing where to take the good things in life, mainly those I've listed above. This is a very confusing episode. No, not in a sense that it confuses me, more like it confuses itself... Oh, is that why they entitled it "Mash-Up"? Because "Mash-Up" products are supposed to go together. Not like "The Thong Song" or My Fair Lady. But that was the point of the episode. So...maybe they're doing a meta...Bleh. Anyway, good points: One, Kurt's cuteness. My! I could do a thousand icons on just one scene with Kurt in it. His facial expressions can be divided into a hundred icons. Two, Noah's musical number. Yes, yes, you are far more interesting and bad-ass than the wimp of a quarterback. Now to the really, really, and I do mean really, bad point: The ending. It was so brady bunch-y. I know this is supposed to be a good feel yadida show, and I'm all for sunshine and halos and angels, as Rachel would say, but I draw the line on brady bunch-y feel. The only shows who have the right to do that are the eighties shows, Disney series, and of course, The Brady Bunch.